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P.R.
4/ Women
Sec. 8/3/2004
Doc:2/32004
Dr. Morad Ghaleb, President of
AAPSO
Issued the following Statement on behalf of the Permanent Secretariat
The Solidarity Organization Salutes Women on the Occasion Of
International Women’s Day
Today, International Women’s Day is celebrated amidst challenges and
difficulties witnessed by the world in general and women in particular.
For in the past these were considered as islands isolated from one
another. However today it is one world where peoples' destinies are
threatened, where resources are exhausted and people who suffer from the
woes of wars raging here and there under the pretext of fighting
terrorism.
Countries race by all ways
and means to procure weapons and budgets are geared to purchasing arms
instead of meeting the basic needs of peoples. Wars break out
successively from one country to another. Civilian losses in terms of
women and children reached 90% whereas such a rate was confined to
military losses in the past.
Although women are the most
vulnerable group afflicted by wars such as in former Yugoslavia, as well
as presently in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and others, yet they are
not included or heard during any negotiations on peace or war. Hence,
certain international institutions adopted strategies to safeguard the
rights of female refugees and to protect them from being subjected to
violence, physical or psychological abuse and other crimes committed
against them. Nonetheless, women’s demands or rights continue to be
disregarded when political decisions related to peace and war are made.
AAPSO stresses that
international resolutions must be implemented such as Security Council
resolution No. 1325, the recommendations of Beijing of 1995 and others
that give great importance to women in war and in armed conflicts.
Furthermore, AAPSO demands
that 8th March 2004 should be a new launch pad for realizing the
initiative for a Middle East free from weapons of mass destruction and
that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) should
be adhered by all.
This can only be achieved by
more transparency regarding the possession of such weapons and that all
member countries should adopt the mechanisms that mitigate existing
tensions.
Hence, we reaffirm the role
of civil society in supporting women politically and economically so
that they may have the opportunity of being on equal footing with men in
securing world peace and security.
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